Todos Santos: History & Culture

The small town of Todos Santos (recently declared a Magical Village) was founded as a Jesuit mission center in 1730. I just love visiting this fertile oasis close to the Pacific coast that receives fresh water from the nearby Sierra de la Laguna. To me it seems remarkable that in colonial times, due to the availability of fresh water and thanks to a cooler and moister climate brought by the Pacific, many subtropical crops such as sugarcane, mangos and cotton were already thriving and thus creating considerable wealth that is still reflected by the mansion around the main square. Today Todos Santos is still a quiet subtropical oasis close to the ocean and maybe because of this it attracted a substantial number of both Mexican and foreign artists offering their work to the visiting tourists. My favorite place is the culture center of Todos Santos which originally used to be a school features mural paintings and now hosts a permanent exhibition about the town's history.